Brazil’s Vanishing Green Shield Raises the Weather Stakes
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Brazil has lost native vegetation on a staggering scale — an area reported as more than twice the size of France over four decades. A new study says that loss is making the country more vulnerable to extreme weather linked to El Niño.
For farmers, native vegetation is often discussed as if it sits outside the productive economy. But forests, savannas, wetlands, and riparian corridors are part of the working landscape’s hidden machinery. They influence water cycles, reduce erosion, cool local climates, shelter pollinators, and buffer farms against weather swings.
When that green shield shrinks, agriculture can become more exposed. Heavy rains run harder over bare or simplified landscapes. Dry periods bite deeper. Heat builds faster. The land may still produce, but it does so with less backup in the bank.
Brazil matters globally because it is an agricultural powerhouse. Soybeans, beef, sugar, coffee, corn — what happens there echoes through feed markets, food prices, and trade flows far beyond South America. If landscape degradation makes production more volatile, the ripple can travel a long way.
The practical message is not that farms and conservation must be enemies. The better path is smarter land use: protecting high-value native areas, restoring stream buffers, improving pasture productivity, and using degraded land before clearing more. A farm can be productive and still keep some wild muscle in the system.
Original source
CNA - Read original articleMore from today's edition
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